Spinach, Gorgonzola, Cranberry Salad & Walnut Dressing

Spinach, Gorgonzola, and cranberry salad really goes well with some delicious walnut dressing. Make spinach, Gorgonzola and cranberry salad with a zesty walnut dressing with help from a resident chef in this free video clip.

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Video Transcript

Hi, this is Doreen Fang, The Vegas Morning Blend's resident chef. Today I'm going to be making a spinach salad with Gorgonzola, cranberries, walnuts and a delicious walnut dressing. Today's ingredients in the dressing are shallots, crumbled Gorgonzola, Dijon mustard, walnut oil, champagne vinegar, sugar, kosher salt and white pepper and then the salad is spinach, crumbled Gorgonzola, walnuts and cranberries. Alright, this is such a quick and easy salad to make. You're really going to just spend time making the dressing. So all you're going to do is actually get a blender. This tool it takes all the work out of it. Okay, get the blender. I'm going to get a whole shallot right here and if you don't know what shallots are, they're like a milder form of like an onion but remember, when you actually cut it still, it will still make you cry but I love shallots. There is a nice sweetness to it and it's great for all salad dressings okay? And whenever you're buying it always look for it to have like a tighter skin. It will show that's a little bit fresher. If it looks a little bit old and wrinkly, don't get it. Alright so you're going to put in the shallots. We're going to put a teaspoon of Dijon mustard in here okay, I have also some sugar right here so it's about a teaspoon of sugar and I'm going to go ahead and put in my champagne vinegar. It's a nice flavor, it's not too tart but still has enough tartness which is really great. Now I'm actually going to blend this up a little bit first before I add the blue cheese and the walnut oil. Alright, or my salt too. Alright after you've kind of blended it and macerated it and just pulverized that shallot, you're going to add some of the oil and you're going to do it slowly okay? So actually let's put this top on first because you don't want it to like splash everywhere, going to get that going. Now, when I was putting in the oil, what's going to help it emulsify is actually the Dijon mustard. For whatever reason it helps it cling together so the oil and the vinegar will become one which is called emulsification. Alright now that I've added it in there, you can see it still looks pretty thin, see that so it looks pretty runny still right? Alright, so it's a little bit thin still, this is where you're going to add in your blue cheese. I'm putting about half a cup of the crumbled Gorgonzola which is actually, it is a blue cheese, it's just an Italian blue cheese okay? So it's not wrong that you call it blue cheese. Alright, let's get that on, make sure you put your little top on also, let's blend that up. I'm going to add a couple of dashes of white pepper. So now you can see it, it's actually much much thicker. Alright now this is perfect. Now is a good time to actually try and you know what, if it does seem a little thick to you you can always add a little bit more of the champagne vinegar to kind of smooth it out and make it just a little bit thinner. Now typically you want to taste it, I'm just using my finger really quick. It needs just a touch of salt and I said about three quarters of a teaspoon of salt but again if you do use regular blue cheese or you have a different type of Gorgonzola and it's actually a little bit like saltier, just make sure you taste it first and salt it appropriately. Okay you don't want to over salt it. But you get the sweetness of the shallots which is so wonderful. Alright and you're ready to serve this. Alright let me take this off. I've got my salad all ready and again, spinach, Gorgonzola, walnuts and cranberries and you've got the perfect dressing to go with it. Enjoy. And here is your delicious dressing made with walnut oil and Gorgonzola. Enjoy. This is Doreen Fang, your resident chef on The Vegas Morning Blend saying I hope you enjoy this delicious spinach, Gorgonzola, cranberry and walnut salad with a walnut dressing. Bye.